Doctor HP Flowers

The Sustaining View

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     Once a year, sometimes twice, I return to John Furrow’s farm in Waiteville.  Remembering we agreed, one past day, that I would return here for a spell to write my book.  Photos.  Impressions of rural backroads, steeped in sentiment, reveling in romanticism.  Fantasies, you know, can be sustaining.

    


© d091018-003  Farm Valley
  Waiteville, West Virginia
  Monroe County
  Sunday 18 October 2009

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November Browns

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I hope it's untrue
That only a photographer
Can appreciate November Browns.
    



© r0764-37  Maize Field
  Sussex County, Virginia
  Monday 21 November 1994

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Out of Network Blues

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     A pox on big-shot TV ads.  My name-brand cell phone whimpers "out of network" on the mountain backroads where I hang.  Inconvenient?  It severs my daily contact with the Housewatch Crew.  Plan B then depends on battered and disrespected pay phones that still manage to survive here and there.  They usually accept my phone card - and all's well for that day.  Not this year, however.  Each pay phone call now imposes a 95 minute surcharge punctuated by a huge flushing sound.  From the start of this year's trip (unbeknownst to me) there were only three precious calls left on the card.
     I'm a worrier.  Hearing on the first call that 95 minutes had vanished shocked my nervous system, tripped the 'Check Engine' light and registered on the local seismograph.  Anxious preoccupation over losing contact with the Home Crew shut down my capacity to appreciate.  Angst and tunnel vision began to consume the trip.
     On Day 8, with one call left, I stopped by the pay phone in Headwaters, Virginia.  With cautious keystrokes I found a recorded menu that passed me to another menu, then to another with a teaser 'to buy more minutes, press seven'.  Somehow, cards and codes succeeded bloating the deflated balance with enough minutes for "out of network" surcharges till closure.
     The Refresh Button had been pressed.  The dark cloud lifted.  There were no Housewatch messages that day; all's o.k.  Floating away from Headwaters I turned north on Cowpasture Road and, two miles later, eased to the shoulder for this shot.  The field note reads, "Hooo-aahh! How beautiful the countryside…."

© d090531-020 Mountain Farm
  Cr 614 Cowpasture Road
  Highland County, Virginia
  Sunday 31 May 2009

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The Illuminists

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From Claude Lorraine
Thru Thomas Cole and George Inness.
The Illuminists.

    

© r0715-10  Hay Mowing
  Alto, West Virginia
  Greenbrier County
  Sunday 5 June 1994

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After the Storm

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Few moments in photography
Are as precious.

    

© r0625-15  Barn in Field
  Cr 17-1 nr Woodrow, Wva.
  Pocahontas County
  Tuesday 8 June 1993

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Emergence

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© r0705-31  Row Crop
  Pendleton County, West Virginia
  Friday 3 June 1994

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Highland Sheep Country

     Highland County, headwaters of the Potomac and James River basins, is by any measure a magnificently beautiful place.  Add to this, for an unforgettable experience, the charm of a mountain sheep ranch bathed in supple winter light.

    

© d081206-021  Sheep Ranch
  Big Valley Road
  Highland County, Virginia
  Saturday 6 December 2008

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A Story Never Told

     For generations John Furrow's family owned and cared for this magnificent farm in Waiteville.  Headwaters Potts Creek in the foreground.  Potts Mountain and Virginia in the background.  Peters Mountain and West Virginia behind me.  I pass thru here nearly every year to photograph the family house, out buildings, winding creek, lane to house, shed where his grandfather was born, horses, sunrises, sunsets, rain, clear, overcast and now, winter for the first time.
     Often I see John outside doing stuff, chores, feeding livestock, mowing hay, mending fences, too many demands to list.  Way back, I helped him fix a hay baler (the old kind) that slipped a chain drive or something.  Actually, I was more in the way than helpful.  But, John's very friendly and didn't seem to mind.  He told me about the history of Waiteville:  the railroad and timber years, his family and farming.
     I fell in love with this farm, its beauty and remoteness and asked John if I could stay in the farmhouse while writing my book.  He beamed.  "No one lives there now," yet he offered to spruce it up, put in some furniture and appliances, turn on power and heat, and make it available and comfortable.  My ultimate fantasy, perpetuated with each visit, with each photograph.

    

© d081204-015   John Furrow Farm
  Waiteville, West Virginia
  Monroe County
  Thursday 4 December 2008

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A Message from the Sower

     My father planted a vegetable garden each year, a real necessity in those days for country folk of modest means.  And, he seemed compelled to expand its borders each year making it bigger and bigger exceeding the plot shown above several times over.  (Or so it seemed to me.)  "Why does he keep doing this," questioned the voice of disbelief from my adolescent sense of rationality.  With each annual growth ring I could see my play time shrinking below reasonable levels.  In fairness to him, even though certain tasks like potato planting or pole bean staking required additional hands, he seldom insisted that I forego play for garden chores.  Which, of course, was fine with me at the time.  Over the years, however, when confronted by reminders like this gardener, I feel a nagging twinge of guilt admitting that I fell short and could have helped him a lot more with little sacrifice.  A permanent message from the sower.








© d080423-019  Gardner with Buttercups
  Overton County, Tennessee
  Wednesday 23 April 2008

Above:  Vincent Van Gogh,  Sower with Setting Sun,  1888.


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The Dappled Surge

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     Silent, like the shadow from a passing cloud, the Spring Line glides swiftly Northward.  Inexorable, and ghostly at times.  Appearing here, disappearing there.  Leaving behind but sensations and impressions that must wait another year to be affirmed.  Don't blink; don't hesitate.  Follow along, find the crest and hop aboard the dappled surge 'till it heaves its final sigh. Leaving me undone, jostling for another wave.

    

© r1374-00  Spring Line
  Cherokee County, North Carolina
  Saturday 23 April 2005

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